January 03, 2008

Top 5 British Bands to Look Forward To in 2008

Thanks to THE MAN, some of these bands will be denied the opportunity to play our shores. We will see what happens. The Enemy and Rumble Strips had to cancel their first U.S. dates due to said problem. Stupid visas.

Anyway, looking at last year's list, The Pipettes, Fratellis and The Automatic toured the U.S. and got their albums released, although The Automatic's Pennie eventually left the band. The Sunshine Underground threw down a killer set at SXSW. Finally, Larrikin Love got no love and called it a day. Here's what I'm looking forward to seeing live in 200Great.

5. Vincent Vincent and the Villains -- That's three Vs if you're counting. Currently on tour with Richard Hawley, VVV are the very definition of retro modern -- old timey crooning tunes with a little of that BritPop sass. The London gang is not too far off the music spectrum from Rumble Strips and Jack Penate.

4. The Courteeners -- The most "commercial" sounding on this list and the mostly to find some success with our crazy teen buyers. By commercial, I mean widely appealing. They make no qualms about their love for The Libertines, even slyly name checking them in their big hit "Acrylic." Fronted by the charismatic Liam Fray, their debut album was produced by BritPop master Stephen Street and will hit U.K. shelves in March.

3. Joe Lean and The Jing Jang Jong -- The NME pretty much wet themselves when they heard of the new band from Joe Van Moyland, actor and former backing drummer for The Pipettes. Currently, they are raising hell with my buds The Ting Tings on the NME Awards Tour. Tings and Jings! Anyway, JJJ have enough frantic guitar hooks to satisfy your BritPop jitters. As for Moyland, I stood next to him once and I looked like John Goodman compared to him.

2. Good Shoes -- If all goes as planned, they'll make the big leap to the U.S. in March.

1. Reverend And The Makers -- I was thinking of the popular British acts that haven't come over yet (Hoduken!, Humanazi, The Twang) and I thought RATM had the best album and more unique sound. They are slightly dancey, slightly poppy, but 100% British. Think Happy Mondays with less drugs meets Oasis if they got along. The Rev in this case is frontman Jon McClure of Sheffield, which makes him tight with the Arctic Monkeys. The Makers debut album, The State of Things, is a big time party album with breezy dance tunes done with charisma, wit and style.